


What are the Possibilities?

by nat_writes_stuff



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gen, Physical Abuse, a whole lot of fun, just kidding it's just angst and pain
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-29
Updated: 2015-12-29
Packaged: 2018-05-10 04:05:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5570338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nat_writes_stuff/pseuds/nat_writes_stuff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Flowey has always wondered about the possible outcomes. Now he's taking action.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What are the Possibilities?

**Author's Note:**

> If there are any mistakes don't hesitate to let me know! I've read it enough to where it's just a wall of random nonsense.
> 
> This became a lot darker than I had planned...

"Please... w-why are you doing this?"

Somewhere in the shadowy skull of the skeleton, Flowey spoke in a tone heavily laced with mock offense. "Now, Papyrus, I thought you said you trusted me!" He was enjoying the struggle his new host was putting up. It really was adorable. ”You did say you wanted to be stronger, right?"

"T-this really h-hurts... This... This isn't w-what I meant..."

"There's no need to worry, friend! We're just going to have a little fun. Can I use your magic?" He attempted to lift a bony arm with a slight tug but had no luck. "Oh, what a shame! I don't suppose you could help me out?"

There was no response, so he figured he would draw one out instead of wait. Without much effort, spikes emerged from the vines wrapped around the skeleton. There was a sharp intake of breath accompanied by a yelp. "I don't think you heard me the first time Papyrus. I asked if you could help me out," he repeated, with an edge to his voice. Still no result.

"Papyrus. If you keep resisting, you won't like what will happen to you. It might hurt, and we wouldn't want that now, would we?" he asked, frustration poking through his fake friendliness.

"I'd rather y-you hurt me instead of anyone... else..." his host said through gritted teeth.

At first, Flowey didn't say anything in response. Instead, the air rang with warped, almost childish laughter. The vines around the skeleton wound tighter, the thorns digging their way into the bones of their victim. There was another sharp yelp of pain, and the skeleton fell forward onto the cold snow. They were paralyzed, the pain shooting through them was immobilizing.

He let this go on for a few moments, pulling the vines ever tighter. Finally, their grip slackened and the thorns receded. There was no movement from Flowey's host. "Oh Papyrus," he began, his voice back to the sickly sweet tone he usually used. "When will you realize that your friends would never do the same for you? I'm only trying to help you see this. I only want the best for you, friend!"

"You're wrong..." came the response in between short breaths. "Undyne... would do this for anybody. And Sans..."

Flowey had to interrupt. "Your brother would not. Believe me! I've told you about the timelines, haven't I Papyrus? I've seen it all! He gave you up in a heartbeat!" Of course, Flowey himself had no idea if this was true. Sans was actually next on his experimentation list, but what his friend didn't know wouldn't hurt him. 

He could tell his words had stung. "Now, if you don't get up soon, I have other things I can do to prove that you should probably cooperate!"

Slowly, with shaky movements and not so gentle help from Flowey's vines, they were raised into a standing position. There was less defiance in the stance, instead it was replaced by a deflated, fearful attitude. This was progress!

Once again Flowey lifted an arm and to his satisfaction found that there was less resistance. With the motion, a wall of bones all uniform in height materialized from the ground. How wonderful! If he could feel emotion, he was sure he would be feeling some sort of joy.

A forced flick of the wrist sent the wall moving forward through the clearing until it hit the line of trees, where it broke apart and fizzled back out of existence. This was just delicious! He continued to dance around the clearing, practicing the use of this newfound ability until his host was exhausted. He would have to reward his friend for being such a cooperative partner! They hadn't said anything outside of the occasional whimpers that escaped their mouth unwillingly.

It had been late when they started, and Flowey knew it was only a matter of time until that sorry excuse of a brother came searching if he wasn't already passed out at Grillby's. He didn't want to take a chance, the last thing he needed was for that smiley trash bag to cause yet another reset. After sending one last interlocking wave of bones through the clearing, he decided he had practiced enough. His friend seemed to realize that there was little reason to resist, and Flowey felt he almost had the blue magic mastered.

There was no better time to put the plan in action. Flowey giggled. "Are you ready Papyrus?" he asked. No answer came back, but that was okay. It only had one possible answer anyways.

With a tug of his vines, Flowey and his host began exiting the clearing. They made it twenty feet before an abrupt stop. His friend seemed to have a change of heart and a was making last-ditch effort to fight back. 

"Papyrus, what are you doing? Keep walking."

"I know what you're going to do and I refuse to let you."

Flowey chuckled. With an abrupt push, he popped out of the eye-socket of his skeletal buddy and felt the cool, snowy air on his petals for the first time since the night had begun. "Friend, tell me something. Did you really think you were in control?"

-

It was past midnight. Usually it was Sans who was out this late, but tonight the roles were reversed. Sans didn't like it. Papyrus had left around four that afternoon to go to a cooking lesson with Undyne, but that never went more than a few hours, even if he was hanging out afterwards. 

Did the kid come out of the Ruins early? Part of him knew it was unreasonable, but the larger part of him was afraid to lose Papyrus again if he could prevent it.

That was stupid. He could always prevent it. It was always his fault. Maybe this time was different, though. At least, that's what he told himself as he stood up from his spot on the couch, despite the belief in the back of his mind that it was pointless, regardless. 

He slid into his jacket and pulled the hood over his eyes, bracing himself for the cold. When he stepped out the front door, he was greeted by a light snowfall. 

Heh, there was snow time like the present, was there?

The snow muffled any noise that escaped into the night, but the silence was deafening. Most of Snowdin was asleep by now, and the few that weren't were still inside, safe from the biting cold. Sans trudged on, unsure of where he should go. He felt as if he was missing the most important piece to a puzzle.

He pulled out his phone one more time to call his brother. He didn't have to think when dialing the number, he knew what buttons to press without even having to look down. He leaned against a tree while he waited for his brother to answer. It was only halfway through the first ring when he heard it, the ringing of his brothers phone. It was soft, coming from deeper in the forest.

"Papyrus?" he called into the dark. No response, his voice was lost in the snow. The ringing was getting louder, closer to Sans on the main road between Snowdin and the Ruins. 

On what should have been the last ring, the sound abruptly stopped. Sans could hear footsteps, but they sounded heavier and slower than his brother's usual jovial stride. The footsteps stopped where Sans judged to be just outside of his view. It was silent once more.

"Papyrus? Are you out there?" He hid the tremor in his voice and stood up straighter, moving out from the cover of the tree.

It was then that he felt the vines wrap around his ankles. They yanked forward, pulling his legs out from under him. Before he hit the ground, two more vines materialized to catch his wrists. All four of his limbs were tied up, escape was impossible.

Once more, the footsteps filled the air. When his brother stepped into view, Sans choked back a yell. Green covered his brother's bones, weaving in and out wherever possible. When Sans finally raised his gaze to make eye contact with Papyrus, he didn't know how to react. The lights of Papyrus' eyes were gone. There was no warm smile. Instead, an all too familiar flower was staring down at him with a wicked grin upon its face. It giggled.

'Golly, Sans! Long time, no see! You were just the guy I was looking for." It spoke with a combination of Papyrus' voice and its own, but he knew Papyrus had no control over the situation.

"What did you do to him?" Sans yelled across the short distance between them. He felt the pull of his magic, but there was nothing he could do without hurting Pap. Despite his instincts, the logical side of his thoughts told him that was the opposite of a solution. 

"You see Sans, I'm awfully bored." Flowey said in that childish voice that made him want to rip the flower apart. "You are well aware of how resets and saves work. I want to see the possibilities, and your brother here is always telling me how he wants to be stronger, so I thought I would help him out!"

The filthy plant smirked and Sans struggled against the vines. There had to be a way to get out of their grip. He just needed to distract Flowey for a second...

"Now Sans, stop struggling. You know you can't get free."

"Papyrus!" Sans shouted. If he could get Papyrus to fight back for a second...

"You idiot! Your brother gave up a long time ago. You get to watch him suffer." The flower winked before starting back up again. "I guess that's nothing new, is it?"

Ouch. There had been no physical blow but the words packed a punch. Before Sans could gather his thoughts, a weak voice sounded through the chilled air.

"S-Sans..."

This seemed to catch the flower off-guard. For a split-second, the grip on Sans' limbs slackened. It was all he needed, time seemed to slow down. With two almost-invisible flicks of his wrists, Sans sent four bones at the vines holding him captive. The force of impact tore the vines in two. He was free. 

He stood and started forward in one fluid motion. Darkness enshrouded him for an immeasurable amount of time. When he reappeared, he was behind his brother. 

He turned around. Wait, no. More correctly, Flowey made his brother turn around. There was nothing but harsh laughter and the abrupt cry of pain released by Papyrus. "You see, Sans, the smartest thing you could do would be to just let me kill you! There's nothing you can do, anything you do would hurt Papyrus."

Well. He wasn't wrong. He couldn't even focus a blue attack on the flower, if he tried to pull it out of his brother's skull with his magic, it might end up doing damage to Papyrus. 

Suddenly, Flowey's expression changed to one of thought. "As much fun as I'm having, your brother really isn't as strong as I was hoping," said the voice that was one part Flowey and one part Papyrus. "I don't think I'll get very far with him as a host. This was a nice change of events, but I think I know what I'm going to do next time around."

What... what did he mean? Sans couldn't come up with a reasonable conclusion before the little yellow garden decoration continued talking.

"Yeah. I'll be seeing you around, Sans!" 

As the last syllable of the sentence was left in the space surrounding the two figures, Sans could do nothing but watch in horror. He was too far away to prevent anything. The thorns emerged from the vines constricting his brother once more, and then tightened with seemingly little effort from Flowey. With nothing but a parting smile from the flower and a whimper of pain on Papyrus' part, he watched as his brother crumpled to nothing more than a pile of dust and shriveled green stems. 

-

Papyrus woke up clutching at his arms. Wowie. What a nightmare! He couldn't remember much... just pain. There had also been vines, and he hadn't really been in control, had he? He sat up. There was one more thing floating in the reaches of his memory. As he rubbed his eyes, it drifted into his conscious thought. Sans. He looked pained. 

He hadn't really shaken off the feeling of dread that the dream had left him with. Maybe he would go spend the remainder of the night with his brother. He got up and quietly made his way to his brother's door. Upon turning the handle, he was secretly relieved to find it was unlocked tonight. When he opened it, he found his brother sitting wide awake on the bare mattress. His entrance seemed to have startled him. Maybe he should have knocked.

"Papyrus? What are you doing up so late. Or maybe it's early?" he said, sitting up straighter than he had been seconds ago. He could tell his brother was trying very hard to play it cool. 

"I could ask the same to you, brother. I just..." he trailed off. Maybe he should have thought of a better excuse before entering the room. The Great Papyrus was known for being brave, and running from a nightmare was not something brave.

He thought he saw his brother stiffen, but he couldn't tell because a split second later he seemed softer than he usually did. "Did you have a, uh, bad dream?" he asked in a tired voice.

Papyrus wasn't even surprised that his brother knew. Sans had always been good at reading others, especially him. He just nodded in response and climbed onto the unmade bed. How Sans slept on this thing, he would never know, but the presence of his brother had already calmed him. 

He didn't fall back asleep, though. He could hear Sans' breathing, but it never fell into the all too familiar soft snores he usually heard when his brother slept. Morning was less than an hour away anyways, and he needed some time to organize his thoughts.

-

Sans hadn't had much time to process his dream. Papyrus had come in mere moments after he had bolted awake in the familiar surroundings of his bedroom. There was one phrase that had been sickeningly clear in his memory. 

"I'll be seeing you around, Sans!"

He stayed in bed, back to back with Papyrus. While he listened to his brother's even breathing, his mind wandered in circles, always coming back to that stupid yellow flower.


End file.
